Manage episode 520456918 series 3686535
What if the hardest part of quality isn’t finding the right answer, but making the right action unmistakable for the people who deliver care? That’s the thread we pull with Dr. Hilary Babcock—infectious disease physician, longtime infection prevention leader, and now chief quality officer helping steer a 12-hospital system of 33,000 people through transformation without losing its soul.
We talk about learning to lead beyond subject-matter expertise and how COVID pressure-tested every leadership instinct. Hilary shares how she and her team turned dashboards into decisions, building a centralized quality hub with deep resources and a one-page “top five” for each priority so busy managers could act today. She explains why outcome views must be paired with real-time process visibility—knowing not just that CLABSIs ticked up, but exactly who is overdue for a dressing change right now—so data becomes a map rather than a mirror.
We also go inside vaccine policy and trust. BJC implemented one of the nation’s earliest influenza mandates, treating it as a safety tool within a clear accommodation process. During the COVID rollout, transparency, values, and personal candor anchored tough choices about prioritization and access. The organization’s values—kindness, respect, excellence, safety, teamwork—moved from posters to practice, and a shift to centrally led, locally embedded quality teams helped spread best practices across hospitals while protecting local relationships.
If you care about healthcare quality, leadership, and culture, you’ll leave with practical tactics and renewed optimism. Hit play, then share this with a colleague who wants to turn analytics into action. If the conversation resonated, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us the one change you’ll try this week.
Chapters
1. Setting The Stage On Vaccine Policy (00:00:00)
2. Meet Dr. Hilary Babcock (00:01:12)
3. From ID To System Leadership (00:03:20)
4. Pandemic Lessons In Influence (00:06:40)
5. Simplifying Complexity For The Front Line (00:10:44)
6. Building A Usable Quality Hub (00:13:58)
7. Implementing The Flu Vaccine Mandate (00:15:50)
8. Trust, Transparency, And COVID Rollout (00:19:30)
9. Values-Driven Culture And Integration (00:23:15)
10. Data Visibility To Actionability (00:27:00)
11. Evolving CQO Capabilities (00:31:20)
12. Learning Strategy And Bookshelf Gems (00:35:05)
13. What Keeps Us Hopeful (00:38:10)
14. How To Connect And Closing (00:40:25)
8 episodes